TEST DRIVE

Sony Acid Pro 7
by Steve Cunningham Having recently checked in with two of our favorite Sony products, Vegas 8 and SoundForge 9, I thought it time that we check in on Sonys Acid product, which has recently arrived at version 7. A percentoff email that showed up on Black Friday provided me with further encouragement to upgrade. Moreover, we havent checked in with Acid since version 3 way back in 2002, and the loop-based production tool has changed a great deal in six years. For one, Acid has added full-blown audio recording and editing to its arsenal of looping tools. And like its sibling SoundForge and Vegas, Acid 7 now has a full-fledged mixing console interface. Ive been a fan of Acid in the past for its ability to time-stretch and -shrink music files for concert promos, with few or no audio artifacts. Acid 7 does this job with even fewer artifacts than before thanks to its use of new algorithms from Germanybased Zplane Development. SETTING UP Like most Sony audio products, Acid 7 can be set up rather quickly. Its copy protection is serial-number based, so theres no need to find another USB port for a dongle. In fact, the longest portion of the entire process for me was simply downloading the software, which includes several gigabytes of loops and a couple of sample-based soft synths. Acids requirements are in line with most of todays editors: Windows XP SP2 or Vista, a 1.8 GHz processor with 2 GHz or faster recommended, 1 GB of RAM with 2 GB or more recommended, 150 MB of hard disk for the program and another 8 GB of optional components including loops and software

ACID Main Screen

RODUCTION

January 2009

samplers, a Windows-capable sound card, a CDR drive for burning CDs and a DVD drive for reading the program disk. You can, as I did, opt to download all the software. Just be aware that the program is small enough, but downloading 4+ GB of content takes quite a while even on a fast connection. WHATS NEW Its been so long since weve looked at Acid in these pages that the list of changes and improvements would take up more space than this writer is allotted per month. So well just hit the highlights of earlier versions that are applicable to beat matching and production work in general, and focus on the new version. The most significant improvement is in the user interface, where Sony have added a real Mixing Console window to Acid version 7, as they have done with Forge 9 and Vegas 8. I sincerely hope there was a second monitor for your rig under the Christmas tree, as youll need that, along with a dual-head video card. The new Mixing Console window does not replace the current Mixer window, but allows you to see the entire mixer in a single window, which is invaluable for setting up complex bussing schemes, and makes Acid a viable production tool that can take music promos from start to finish. The new Mixing Console window is home to the same set of controls as the Mixer window shows, including buttons for Properties, Downmixing (from surround to stereo or stereo to mono), Dim Output, and Insert Audio Track/Assignable FX/Bus. In addition, a list down the left-hand side displays all available channels (based on your tracks) with a checkbox to show or hide any or all of them. The show/hide checkbox works on whatever tracks are currently selected, and its easy to see at a glance which tracks are not visible. One small quibble is the re-sizeable dividing line between this list and the rest of the Mixing Console display -- I tend to use succinct labels for tracks (which of course become the channel names in the Mixing Console), but the dividing line cant be moved leftward past a certain point. In my case that point leaves the list about twice as wide as it actually

Mixer Window

needs to be, and wastes valuable screen real estate in the process. But this is a nit, and only serves as additional motivation for that second monitor, yes? Between the track list and the Preview channel are two groups of vertical buttons that let you show or hide tracks or functions selectively, with the top button labeled Show All. The upper group lets you hide tracks by their type, while the lower buttons let you hide sections by function. Dont want to see any buss tracks? Just press the busses button. Pressing the I/O button from the lower group will hide those buttons and extend the meters/faders to fit. You will note that some of the lower function show/hide buttons may not seem to work, depending upon your screen resolution. BIG MIX, NEW PATHS With the Mixing Console Window fully extended vertically and all Show buttons enabled, the mixer shows the aforementioned Properties, Downmixing, etc. buttons along the top, then the Insert FX group, then the Sends group, then the I/O, and finally the Faders with meters alongside. Moreover, the dividing lines between the Insert FX group and the Sends group, and between the Sends group and the I/O group are both moveable with the mouse. You can set up what you see and what you hide to suit your style of workflow and tastes. Very nice. Additional coolness within the new mixer includes full track envelope automation that works in real time, and can be controlled with either a mouse or an external fader box. Automation envelopes are graphically editable with moveable breakpoints and curves. The automation itself works in Read, Write, Touch, and Latch modes, with the latter two kicking in when you grab a fader and kicking out either when you release the fader (Touch) or when you stop playback (Latch). All the while you can monitor your tracks with real-time track DSP effects, both while in record and in playback. Also new are input busses, which allow you to record from external devices through effects processors thereby printing them wet, combine external sources with projects in real time, as well as process tracks through external effects. To help you see whats happening during complex sessions, meters are now available on both audio tracks and busses. These are new meters that can be customized with regard to both position and scale. You can even label your ASIO input and output devices, so youre not relying on the default names January 2009

Dynamics Processing

to figure out what is going where. Sweet. Of course, Acid 7 retains all the functionality of previous releases, including an interface that is extremely easy to use, a Video window for working to picture, windows that can be torn off or docked, and the aforementioned automatic, realtime pitch-shifting and tempo- matching that is as good as it gets. KILLER APP For creating music promos and beat matching in general, Acid is still a killer app thanks to its adept implementation of time-stretch and -shrink audio files, and its ability to create seamless audio loops. These can be manipulated together or independently, making it easy, for example, to alter the tempo of a pop song slightly when matching it to other songs in a promo, or even to pitch-shift a VO read to get a specific effect. Audio loops can be stored in an Acidized format which contains information about the original recording tempo, length (in beats) and root-note pitch. Like several other audio editors, Acid uses a resynthesis technique for time-stretching, which has markedly improved since Sony licensed Zplanes elastique Pro software component. Zplane makes three versions of their algorithms available for licensing, and the Pro version in Acid 7 generates the highest quality results, according to the company. I was definitely able to apply more stretch before I heard glitches, in some cases well over 20%. The results are generally excellent,
and although with any pitch-shifting or tempo-stretching the process only works within certain limits before audio artifacts appear, the new algorithms in Acid 7 allow a much more radical degree of stretch or shrink without artifacts than before. The other key component of the Acid experience has always been the straightforward organization and ease of use of the interface. This makes the mixing and matching of loops so simple that, with the right combination of loops and music thats somewhat close in tempo, even parttimers can use it to create very impressive results. The ability to preview Acidized loops in real time means that auditioning a new loop simply involves clicking on a file as you browse your loop collection in the Explorer window -- youll automatically hear it with its tempo and pitch mapped to those of the project. The Media Manager goes a long way towards making those loops more accessible. Its included with Acid 7 (and with Forge 9 and Vegas 8), but it is a separate install. Dont ignore it -- it definitely speeds workflow. The Media Manager automatically scans your hard drives and finds audio bits, or you can manually add

Chorus Effect

items. Once theyre in the Media Library, you can tag em and bag em, organizing them into folders with useful names (now theres a concept!). As you do, the Media Manager builds a searchable database that works across all three Sony products, so if youre a Vegas user your library may already be done. Of course if you buy any loops from Sony, they come to you pretagged for your dining pleasure. EXTRAS Sony bundles a whole lot of goodies with Acid 7. Unfortunately most of them are aimed at musicians -- theres a Garritan sample playback plug, a guitar sample player from Native Instruments, and even a cut-down version of Submersibles Drum Core plug-in. Fun if youre into that, I suppose. But they do include four effects from iZotope (one of my favorite propeller-head DSP wizard companies) that are excellent. Im a big fan of authentic-sounding analog effects plugs, particularly Phasers and Flangers. The Flanger and Phaser included with Acid 7 are simply outstanding. The Flanger will also create a nice chorus effect, and can generate comb filters that are either gentle and sparse or deep and dense. The Phaser can be set to one stage for a gentle effect, or six stages for a deep swoosh, or anywhere in between. The Phase Difference slider lets you dial in the affected frequencies, and an EQ lets you tame the effect. The Analog Delay plug has settings to emulate tape, or tape through tubes, or good old analog bucket brigade delay. Theres even a Trash setting to give you a little analog grit. The Dynamics plug has individual settings for compression, limiting, and expansion/gating, giving you the ability to set a multi-segment dynamics curve to handle just about anything. It sounds excellent, with no coloration. just lots of squash. HELP PLEASE The documentation included with Acid 7 is, frankly, a bit sparse. Whether you buy the download and get it as a PDF, or buy the boxed set and get a soft cover manual, it covers only the basics. However, Acid 7 comes with built-in interac-
tive tutorials which are a help. I found that theres a certain amount of trial and error involved in getting two dissimilar songs to play nicely together in a promo using Acid, and once Id gone through the tutorials I felt mostly on my own. Fortunately the learning curve gets flatter as I spent more time with the program. The fact that its organized much like Forge and Vegas certainly makes it easier, but if youre going to create an entire music promo in Acid for the first time, you may want to take a dry run at it in private. But once I established a workflow I was good to go, and its fun. The programs ability to stretch and shrink music beyond recognition, almost without artifacts, is amazing. Now that it will record and edit audio just like Vegas, Acid has become a serious tool for any project that requires beat matching as part of the pro-

duction process. Acid has become a mature product for pros. If youve got an old copy of Acid Pro in any version tucked away on your hard drive, you should seriously consider the upgrade. Its well worth it. Steve sez check it out. Acid Pro 7 carries a US suggested retail price of $299.95 (download) or $314.95 (boxed). Upgrades from previous versions start at $134.95. A demo version is available, as is more information at www.sonycreativesoftware.com. n Steve Cunningham is a voice actor and producer at Acme Voiceworx, and shares his production tips at www.audiotechsupport.com. Hes also a USC faculty member. Steve welcomes your comments and questions at steve@acmevox.com.

Delay Effects

Originally printed in October 2006 issue of EQ magazine. Reprinted with the permission of the Publishers of EQ Magazine. Copyright 2006 NewBay Media, LLC. Allrights reserved. [magazine] is a Music Player Network publication, 2800 Campus Dr., San Mateo, CA 94403 (650) 513-4300. Subscribe at www.musicplayer.com.

Reviews

In keeping with its stretching orientation, Acid has redone MIDI (the original way to stretch time and pitch). In fact, the most surprising and impressive new feature for me is the MIDI sequencing. ACID Pro 6.0 provides the same precise control and editing on MIDI tracks as it does on audio, with the same basic interface. This is great for by Sam Wheeler setting up MIDI backing tracks and being controller support, multitrack MIDI and Acid has come a long way since its humable to transport them to other MIDI instruaudio recording, VSTi parameter automable beginnings as a 4/4-only loop-based ments. As if that werent enough, the Sony tion, MIDI track envelopes, automatic software sequencer. I first got on with ACID Pro Edition of Kompakt provides a keyframes, and even a custom edition of Acid Pro 2.0 back around the dawn of the host of instrument sounds, and works Native Instruments Kompakt a very millennium, and found it remarkably capaseamlessly within the Acid interface. nice deal, especially given the price. You ble for recording stereo or mono tracks, as My Pentium 4 laptop runs XP Pro at can see the full list of features at well as arranging loops. Its ability to do 3.2GHz and has 1GB of RAM; I was able www.sony.com/mediasoftware. on-the-fly loop time stretch/compression, to run over 30 tracks at once (audio, MIDI, APPLYING ACID pitch transposition, or both, all with a and virtual instruments combined) with no Why would anyone choose Acid over other graphic waveform display that sure beat problems. It takes a while to build the DAWs? For groove-oriented musicians, the messing around with the jog wheel on my graphic image of the tracks when you answer is obvious: great looping capabiliantiquated hardware samplers, were scroll through the tracks afterward, but its ties and loop editing, along with all other unique at the time. recording process is flawless, even when traditional DAW functions. But its also an Although Acid didnt do MIDI until vermonitoring with effects. audio-for-video powerhouse. Given some sion 4 (nor did it do MIDI particularly well), So how much can you record at once? I decent loop libraries, you can throw together and originators Sonic Foundry never leverbrought over two associates with diverse soundtracks almost as fast as you can paint aged its hard disk recording capabilities talents to play various acoustic instruments in loops, and alter tempo to match up with beyond recording one stereo track at a time, into an array of five mics, plus direct inputs hit points. Did the producer cut a few the excellent user interface, powerful editing from five analog electric instruments, plus frames? Speed things up a bit. Acids audio features, and relative versatility and affordability two tracks of MIDI (one from the keyboard, engine was greatly improved in V5.0, so were the main draws for most users. one from the drum machine) and a stereo S/PDIF feed from the DJ mixer. We ended stretched audio sounds better than ever. As other DAWs began adding loop up making a fearsome racket, like three And even if you dont care about looping, functionality, Sony kept their competitors dueling one-man-bands all trying to get as Acid delivers almost all the same features in check by including ASIO compatibility, many things going at once as we could. as the big DAWs for less money. video and surround sound support, and Unfortunately for any ReWire functionality. I potential listeners, the didnt upgrade until last software had no problem years V5.0, by which recording every nuance of point Sonic Foundry had our asinine behavior and been acquired by Sony, playing it back precisely and the application had with not one stutter. already evolved into Dumping effects onto something far more than these tracks by the barreljust a loop sequencer: ful did slow things down Sample rates up to 24a bit on my machine, but bit/192kHz, enhanced file there really isnt any need compatibility, greater to use four different overall versatility, and reverb plug-ins at once, plug-in support took it plus multi-tap delay, comout of being just a pression, EQ, and flanggroove program. ing on every single track So, I was not entirely in real life, is there? For surprised when Sony more normal use, V6.0 announced the arrival of runs smoothly and withAcid Pro 6.0 as a fullout hassle. A limited, fledged DAW. And it is: admittedly unscientific V6.0 is more like a survey sample (two other makeover than an friends with older comupdate, adding in-place Youre not hallucinating: Acid now features robust, in-place MIDI editing. Peeking out puters) indicates that the MIDI editing, external from the right side is the Sony edition of Kompakt, which is bundled with Acid 6.

SONY ACID PRO 6.0

Acid has gone on its own trip and its a good one

O CTO B E R 2006

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the major, obligatory software suites (Pro Tools, Nuendo, etc.), but Acid has clearly stepped into a whole new league by keeping all the elements that made the program unique (ease of use in particular), while adding all the elements expected from todays advanced DAWs and upping the audio quality associated with stretching. Its ability to work with just about any file format or interface is another exceptional strength. In fact, given its stability and versatility, I expect to see Acid making ever-greater inroads into the professional digital recording world. Although the lack of a traditional mixing console view may irk some old school engineers, I dont miss it at all. If this sounds good to you, Sony makes it easy for you to get acidized by offering a downloadable, full-function 30day demo. If you liked Acid but drifted away, its time to come back. If youve never used Acid before, youre in for a major surprise. Indeed, its not just a DJ tool any more.
Acid software suite itself still has remarkable stability even on less robust systems (one of Acids hallmarks has always been the ability to run on just about any computer with a pulse). The number of tracks that can be supported effectively does seem lower with lower processor speeds, but most home or laptop users will likely run out of inputs on their interfaces before this happens anyway. True pros with dual CPUs and outboard effects processing may, for all practical purposes, never run out of tracks. Speaking of interfaces, all three of the main interfaces I use (RME MultiFace 2, E-mu 1616m, and MBox 2) worked just fine with V6.0, but of course, only one at a time. This versatility is important to me, as different interfaces have different strengths in certain applications. CONCLUSIONS This may sound a bit over the top, but I think Acid Pro 6.0 is taking aim squarely at the other pro DAWs. It may take some time to earn the same respect as some of
Product type: Digital audio workstation for Windows XP or 2000 SP4. Target market: Anyone who wants a pro-grade DAW with exceptional looping capabilities for under $400 street price. Strengths: Support for high sample rates (up to 192kHz/24-bit). Powerful, easy-to-use interface. Can edit loop markers in Acidized files. Compatible with most major file formats and interfaces. Excellent multitrack and (finally!) MIDI recording/editing. Video and surround support. Bundled with Native Instruments Kompakt Sony Acid Pro Edition. Comprehensive soft synth support. Limitations: No notation. Doesnt support REX files. Lack of traditional console view may bother some. Price: $499.95 list (boxed version), $374.96 (download). Contact: www.sony.com/media software